[AJ-got-BHP]

Hello BHPians,

I have been desiring to start this thread since a long time.

Has it ever so happened that the road comes to an end......with No Road Ahead to drive ??

You may have been misled by the locals or the GPS might have suggested a road, which never existed and how you managed to deal with the situation and make your own road or find out other risky propositions of coming out of that situation.

This thread is about sharing such experiences and not road incidences or accidents. Something which is very different that you have experienced and something that you will never forget when you were behind the wheel of your ride.

It happened with me once, (i do not exactly recollect the date) it was in 2009-2010 when I was travelling to Nadia District of West Bengal for business purpose. I was in Tehatta and had to go to Debagram.

The conventional route was Tehatta-Betai-Plasseypara-Plassey-Debagram which was a 55Km drive; but the roads were in bad shape so would have taken me more than one and a half hours. Since I was in a rush, I asked my business associate about if there is any other route and he suggested me another route which would straight take me to Debagram in 30-40mins as it would be only a 30Km Drive from there.

Now the best part - He did not tell me that I would have to cross a river (the Jalangi River) and that also like this :

On approaching the Jalangi River, I realized that there was NO BRIDGE or FERRIES :


Moving closer to the river bank realized that there were 2 boats fixed to each other with a Bamboo Raft and we had to get our vehicle on it and that we would be rowed across the river :


I had no option but to go for it and wait for my turn with my Ford Ikon :


Got the vehicle on the Boat Raft as I may call it :


A shot of the ORVMs :


What an experience !!

It's not finished here.......guess what ? It did not even cost me money, it was a FREE service from the Panchayat of that town

[rohansachar]

WOW! Must've been an amazing experience! I wonder how safe it is however.

[AJ-got-BHP]

Originally Posted by rohansachar

WOW! Must've been an amazing experience! I wonder how safe it is however.

Rohan,

to that !! What was initially a shocking experience resulted in being an amazing one.

I guess the Boat Raft guys were professionals in the matter of safety as it was their daily job

However, seeing the Scorpio sailing on it, I got the courage to load my ride for a sail; as mine weighed much lighter than the Hawk

[simplyself]

Originally Posted by AJ-got-BHP

Rohan,

to that !! What was initially a shocking experience resulted in being an amazing one.

I guess the Boat Raft guys were professionals in the matter of safety as it was their daily job

However, seeing the Scorpio sailing on it, I got the courage to load my ride for a sail; as mine weighed much lighter than the Hawk

Though I have not travelled on the raft or seen it, I have heard about this kind of transport. Even trucks laden with cement are transported across the Krishna in this manner.

[GTO]

Thread moved from the Assembly Line to Street Experiences. Thanks for sharing!

[lambuhere1]

How in the world did you manage to get your beauty on the boat, with all the rocking in the waters ?

Scary a lot

[Divya Sharan]

Happened to me once. I was 'riding' from Bangalore to Gokarna via Sirsi. But much before I reached Sirsi, I was mislead by Google Maps into taking the innards of a certain village.

The road ended and I encroached upon someone's property (gardens). Since I was not sure where I'd come, I tried asking people nearby the route. But most were either teenagers or women. I continued with the route GMaps showed. It ended about 3 km later with houses on both sides of the road which itself was no more than 5 feet wide and I could see housemakers sitting on both ends of the roads washing clothes/utensils.

They were utterly shocked seeing an alien like fully suited guy and needless to say I was scared to death!

[cr4nkshaft]

Though not of Arav's scale, something similar happened to me while I was posted in bhubaneswar.
The new TCS building is at the very edge of the city limits, and a sanctuary starts right after that. One day I was really bored in office (happens quite often with me), and decided to play hookey. Quick google search revealed two dams, Deras and Jhumka (interesting names!) around 40kms away, so left office around 3.30 pm for an afternoon drive. It was scorching orissa sun all around, not a single cloud visible.

I had an idea from g maps that the khurda-chandaka-nandankanan road, which was the longest consecutive stretch on my route, would be a pretty good road. But to reach there I'd have to take some village roads starting right behind the office.

Well, what was two lane blacktop soon became single lane, pothole ridden road, then gravel, then earth. Three to four foot high bushes all around, and as if on cue from a disaster movie, the weather became cloudy in a stretch of ten minutes. Visibility was so low I had to switch headlights on (mind you, it was hardly 4 pm, in August). And then it rained. By God it was raining cows and bulls, not cats and dogs. It was really scary and I was not even sure if I was going along the correct way, because the rain rendered data connection unusable.

Well, I nutted up and drove along in 3rd gear, and after about 15 minutes or so came to a village, and then within 5 minutes to the hallowed highway.

After that it was a beautiful drive for around half an hour and reached the dams.. And it was a sight in the rains. Not a single soul around, and right in the midst of a forest.

But the fifteen minute part was pretty scary!

Searched my mobile for a pic from that day, but couldn't find any :-(
Attaching one of the dam pics from a later trip.

[r_devakumar]

When i traveled from Hyderabad to Chennai some 6 years back, i took the route via Bangalore Highway. Using google maps (in my good old Nokia N95) the original plan was Hyderabad - Anantapur - Kadri - Madanapalle - Chitoor - Ranipet - Chennai.

But after Kadi, i decided to change the route to reach Rayachoty NH18 (the rational was NH18 will be better than the SH 205). I was blindly following Google maps. But there was some diversion which missed (but Google map doesn't have the diverted route that time). The route started become remote and appears it is not used for a while. However i continued for couple of KMs and the road became very narrow. Only one tracker crossed me and that guy gave me a strange look. After another two KM i reached a dead end, where the road reached to a lake and submerged. Panicked and i returned back and noticed the diversion sign board when i was returning back. But abandoned the NH18 plan and came via the original route. In the process, lost more than two hours.

Attached the picture:
- Green circle is where the diversion which i missed
- Pink Line is the one originally shown in Google map that time.
- Red circle is where the road meets the lake. You can see the road still in the satellite view reaching and submerging into the lake

Also attached a picture taken on that route...

[Jaggu]

Have happened multiple times, if you get into offroading it's quite normal.

Buttttt the best was last RFC trip, we were participating as spectators and staying in hotel. The day the event moved out of city, we were little late and could not catch up with the convoy. So we used google maps and then nokia maps to reach the location. This inspite the actual location coordinates shared by friends over Whatsapp.

We went round and round... inside abandoned mines, and finally good ol common sense (and losing our ego to start talking to the locals) got us to where we needed to go. Which was just next door but about 10 kms by road. Maps just pointed us the straight line direction coz these were never mapped, only problem was there would be either no roads or just big holes (left behind by mining) in between us and the spot. Worst part was the area (rather the mine name) was confusing for the locals also.

Broad day light, inside a lifeless mine can be quite an experience i tell you

Another one was long back in munnar, over enthu me, took the poor ol zen on a jeep road. Finally to be guided by plantation workers into the estate. Landed up inside estate which was tightly cordoned off to the public. Security and Manager totally surprised. Was let off after a good 30 minutes of explanation on the stupidity i was upto. They said i was lucky to make it coz it was a wildlife infested area!!

[Samurai]

Originally Posted by AJ-got-BHP

However, seeing the Scorpio sailing on it, I got the courage to load my ride for a sail; as mine weighed much lighter than the Hawk

Just a Scorpio? How about 5 Ford Endeavours?

This happened on my very first team-BHP review back in 2010.



About running out of roads, very common in offroad, let's leave that alone.

But GPS can cause some really silly running out of road situations. The following one is a video report of that, where GPS decided to take my family on a short cut. It is in 4x speed to take you through it fast.

See in high definition:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ApdrXkTDV58

[dj78]

It has happened to me on a few occasions - Here is a favourite when I got down from the car to see the view from the other side.

[Jeroen]

Around the mid 80s I was working in the offshore. We were working off the coast of Gabon, Africa. One weekend we went ashore, rented a car and started to explore. We drove on this magnificent motorway going right through the jungle for about a hundred kilometers when it just stopped. Literally. In the middle of the jungle the Tarmac just stopped and the jungle just took over. Apparently, we found out later, the motorway was funded through some international aid program, but the funding ran out. When the funding ran out, that's where the motorway stopped. Even today the jungles of Gabon are one of the most dense in the world. Even a 4x4 won't get you anywhere.
Jeroen

[tsk1979]

Though we have frequently been to places with no road, just a track, 'this' happened just once.
With the Shyok river in full flow, going through was not an option. So we crossed on 2 girders

[cr4nkshaft]

Originally Posted by Jeroen

.....We drove on this magnificent motorway going right through the jungle for about a hundred kilometers when it just stopped. Literally. In the middle of the jungle the Tarmac just stopped and the jungle just took over....

Did you have a camera on you by any chance? This "edge of civilization" scenario would be an awesome picture!